Hypnosis was mostly used at first in the 1880s. The term hypnotism was introduced by James Braid, a scottish surgeon in 1841. Braid wrote a major book on hypnotism called Neurypnology in 1843. Accoding to him, hypnosis has similarities with oriental meditation technique like Hindu yoga meditation. The Hindus of ancient India often took their sick people to sleep in a temple called sleep temples. There they are cured by hypnotic suggestion. The case is also found in ancient Egypt and Greece.
Braid opposed the views of the Mesmerists, who used magnet fields as alternative medicine practice. Mesmerists claim that permanent magnets has good health effect if is used on certain part of the body. Mesmerism was introduced by Franz Anton Mesmer, an Austrian physician. He believed that there is a quasi-magnetic fluid in the air we breathe and our body's nerves absorbed this fluid. As a doctor he considered that a blockage of the circulation of this magnetic fluid in our blood and nerve system will cause a disease. To cure the desease he need to correct the circulation by using magnet.
Influenced by the philosophical school of Scottish Common Sense Realism, Braid explain the phenomena of mesmeric using laws of psychology and physiology. Therefore, he is regarded as the first true "hypnotist" as opposed to the Mesmerists. After that there are numerous of treatment using hypnosis. Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893), a leading neurologist used hypnosis to treat hysterics. Hippolyte Bernheim (1837-1919), a professor of medicine regarded hypnosis as a special form of sleeping and the use of suggestions to the patients. Hypnosis was also used by field doctors in the American Civil War. Although hypnosis seemed to be worked very effective, it was much easier to use chemical anesthesia than hypnosis when you are in war.
In 1892, in the annual Meeting of the BMA, it was unanimously endorsed the use of hypnosis and rejects the theory of Mesmerism. In 1958, the American Medical Association (AMA) approved medical uses of hypnosis. It encouraged research on hypnosis although there are some aspects of hypnosis which are still unknown and controversial. Two years after AMA approval, American Psychological Association endorsed hypnosis as a branch of psychology.
